Message from New USA Boxing President John Brown

If you’ve been coaching for a while you probably know me and I know you.

I am not a bureaucrat but a retired businessman and a coach of boxing for 45 years. When I was in business my business was boxing. I have put my heart and soul into this sport every day since I started boxing at 12 years of age.

My track record in boxing is real and one of success. I have created hundreds of products to make our sport better and more safe. I have trained several National champions from day one, not just put polish on someone else’s life work. I run a very large gym and work with kids every night. I am a Golden Glover as president of the KC Golden Gloves and I am an LBC Chairman. In other words, I’m all in ! ! ! !

No more flowery presidential reports about how great we’re doing. I believe that transparency and reality keep our feet on the ground. We have not been doing so well but we are quickly turning things around. I know and live with all the grass root problems and having an elite boxer also educates me about the problems at that level.

Our new model at USA Boxing is going to be GSD (Get stuff done) instead of just talking about it. It’s going to take time and I will need your help. I have already solicited the help of some of our great boxing folks around the country, Joe Smith, Don Simpkin, Joe Higgins, Michael Rodgers, Al Valenti and many others.

Let’s start with something easy. I need every member to recruit just one new member to our organization that might turn out to be a judge, referee, coach, etc. Just this act alone would double our membership and help our sport in many ways.

We have hired a veteran boxing person to be our Interim Executive Director, Mike Martino. Mike is a real boxing guy, still runs a gym and came in to help USAB a few years ago during a difficult time. Mike is hitting the ground running getting us back on the right track. We are blessed to have him and he is blessed with a very dedicated staff in Colorado Springs.

WITH MIKE ON BOARD IT MEANS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DECADES BOXING WILL BE RUN BY BOXING PEOPLE ! ! ! !

We are putting together a fund raising group to try to raise funds so that new and better programs can be initiated. This has been talked about for years, it is time to get it done.

Initiatives being worked on at this time and more information to follow:

*There will be a National Senior Tournament later this summer
*We will make every effort to stage all future tournaments with the novel notion of considering what is
best for our coaches, athletes and officials
*We will get an adequate staff at the office to answer the phone and aid our members
*We will explain the role of AIBA and its relationship with USAB
*We will explain our fees and how they are used

If you have a good idea that is practical and sensible, send it to me to evaluate. We never have too many new ideas to improve our sport.

When I owned Ringside, Inc. we made customer service our #1 priority, it is time USA Boxing does the same.